Friday, November 15, 2013

TSA Two Weeks in Review (11/01/13 – 11/14/13)

75Firearms Discovered in the Past
Two Weeks – Of the 75 firearms, 66 were loaded and 19 had rounds chambered.
See a complete list and more photos at the bottom of this post.

Two
inert C4 demolition explosives were discovered in the carry-on bag of a
passenger at Honolulu (HNL).

Inert
Ordnance and Grenades etc.
- We continue to find inert hand grenades and other weaponry on a weekly basis.
Please keep in mind that if an item looks like a realistic bomb, grenade, mine,
etc., it is prohibited - real or not. When these items are found at a
checkpoint or in checked baggage, they can cause significant delays in
checkpoint screening. While they may be novelty items, you cannot bring them on
a plane. Read
here on why inert items cause problems.

Two
inert C4 demolition explosives were discovered in the carry-on bag of a
passenger at Honolulu (HNL).

An
inert grenade was detected in the carry-on bag at Spokane (GEG).

12
Airsoft grenades and two Airsoft flash grenades were discovered in checked
baggage at Minneapolis St. Paul (MSP).

Stun
Guns – 20 stun
guns were discovered over the last two weeks in carry-on bags around the
nation. Four were discovered in Denver (DEN), two in Atlanta (ATL), two in
Burbank (BUR), two in Cleveland (CLE), two in Phoenix (PHX), and the remainder
at Corpus Christi (CRP), Jackson (JAN), New York Kennedy (JFK), Las
Vegas (LAS), Minneapolis (MSP), Richmond (RIC), Seattle (SEA), San Francisco
(SFO).

Artfully
Concealed Prohibited Items –
It’s important to examine your bags prior to traveling to ensure no prohibited
items are inside. If a prohibited item is discovered in your bag or on your
body, you could be cited and quite possibly arrested by local law enforcement.
Here are a few examples from the past two weeks where prohibited items were
found by our officers in strange places.

A
cane sword with a 16-inch blade was discovered at Detroit (DTW).

A
dagger belt buckle was discovered at Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW).

A
credit card knife was discovered in Albuquerque (ABQ).

A
belt buckle knife was discovered at Saipan (GSN).

A
knife, a multi-tool, and a credit card multi-tool were detected concealed
inside the pull handle of a carry-on bag at Detroit (DTW)

Ammunition – When packed
properly, ammunition can be transported in your checked luggage, but
it is never permissible to pack ammo in your carry-on bag.

Airsoft Gun (SNA)

Airsoft
Guns
– Airsoft guns were discovered in carry-on bags over the last two weeks at
Myrtle Beach (MYR), Salt Lake City (SLC), Sacramento (SMF) and Orange County
(SNA). Airsoft guns are prohibited in carry-on bags, but allowed in checked
baggage. Read this post for more information: TSA
Travel Tips Tuesday: Traveling With Airsoft Guns

Firearms Discovered in
Carry-On Bags

Top to Bottom - Left to Right: Firearms Discovered at ABQ, BNA, PHX, SAN, PIT, MIA

*In
order to provide a timely weekly update, I compile my data from a preliminary
report. The year-end numbers will vary slightly (increase) from what I report
in the weekly updates. However, any monthly, midyear, or end-of-year numbers
TSA provides on this blog or elsewhere will not be estimates.

Unfortunately
these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about
these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are
finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the
throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up
with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. The passenger can face a
penalty as high as $7,500.00. This is a friendly reminder to please
leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an
individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law
enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had
these items.

Pistole has issues this threat in response to the GAO report on the BDO program and, hopefully, its elimination:

"“Defunding the program is not the answer,” he (John Pistole) said. “If we did that, if Congress did that, what I can envision is, there would be fewer passengers going through expedited screening, there would be increased pat-downs, there would be longer lines, and there would be more frustration by the traveling public.”

I know it's a waste of keystrokes to ask this, but just how would the elimination of the BDO program means fewer people would go through expedited screening and why would there be more pat downs?

Is Pistole saying that it's the BDOs at the airport that choose people for such screenings?

Great job by the scanners at Washington Reagan this past week. After attending a funeral at Arlington my wife put 7 blank shells into my camera bag. My bag sailed thru X-Ray without a whisper and I found the shells in my bag after I got home. I'm glad that someone wasn't paying attention as the delays at the ID station had my rushing to meet my flight back to SDF.

Another useless blotter post. Anonymous from Nov 16 8:59am, these posts and TSA's procedures don't keep you safe. It's security theater at the cost of $8 Billion every year.

Think of it. 3,600,000 flyers in two weeks. TSA found 75 "dangerous items." They missed around 200 weapons over the past two weeks. So, .000076 of the passengers in the past two weeks brought a "dangerous item," and no planes fell out of the sky. Because none of the people who did have one of these "dangerous items" was a threat to aviation safety. And the number of people who brought "dangerous items" into an airport is statistically insignificant.

Remember, only a thousandths of one percent of flyers even try to bring a weapon into an airport. Yet, Bob trots out this blotter every week. No one in the past 12 years carrying a weapon found by TSA was a terrorist threatening planes. Yet, all flyers are treated as criminals.

Why is this blog so narrowly focused on non-threatening, rare events? You can't scare those of us who knows the truth and looked at the plain facts and numbers.

No planes fell out of the sky. Not because of the TSA. Because no one is trying to blowup a plane right now. Face it. The TSA is wasting billions of our tax dollars for absolutely no benefit to America.

I really want to know why a government agency confiscated a bunch of $20 bills from a traveler a few weeks ago, as revealed in one of your blog photos. Can't you research it? Travelers need to know what to expect at your security checkpoints. If it wasn't TSA that confiscated the money, who did? And how did they find the money at a TSA checkpoint? Are employees of other agencies working the checkpoints, too? Are they using TSA screening to search passengers for items that are not weapons, explosives, and incendiaries?